Electric Vehicle Association Policy Perspective on Transportation Funding and the BUILD America 250 Act

The Electric Vehicle Association supports a fair, sustainable, and long-term approach to funding America's transportation infrastructure.

As Congress considers the transportation funding provisions included in the BUILD America 250 Act, EVA encourages policymakers to carefully evaluate the cumulative impact of transportation-related fees on EV drivers. More than three dozen states already impose EV-specific registration fees or taxes, and in some states those fees are substantial. Adding a new federal EV fee on top of existing state charges could result in EV owners contributing more toward transportation funding than comparable gasoline vehicle drivers.

As outlined in EVA's Policy Focus, the organization supports equitable road-use contributions from all drivers, including electric vehicle drivers. EV owners should contribute their fair share toward maintaining the roads and bridges they use, but transportation funding policies should remain fair, transparent, technology-neutral, and designed to avoid disproportionate burdens on any one group of vehicle owners.

In addition, the Highway Trust Fund faces legitimate long-term funding challenges, and Congress should address them. However, those challenges did not originate with electric vehicles. The federal gas tax has remained unchanged since 1993 and has not kept pace with inflation, rising infrastructure costs, or improvements in vehicle fuel economy. As a result, the Highway Trust Fund's funding challenges predate widespread EV adoption and will require broader modernization efforts to address over the long term.

EVA supports comprehensive transportation funding solutions that treat drivers fairly, provide sustainable infrastructure funding, and support continued innovation, consumer choice, and U.S. energy security. We encourage Congress to focus on modernizing the transportation funding system as a whole and addressing the long-term structural challenges facing the Highway Trust Fund, rather than relying primarily on fees targeted at a single vehicle technology.